Rant of the day --- screaming babies on red-eye flights

I like red-eye flights. I'd rather fly all night than fly all day, and get some rest in the skies. But this particular red-eye was a notable exception.

There was a couple sitting a few rows ahead of me with a screaming infant, during the take-off, the first hour during flight and the descent -- no surprise because little ones do have problems with equalizing their ears without assistance.

Having been a traveling parent of infants and toddlers, I remember being sensitive about ensuring my children were able to fly with minimal discomfort. And I never had any problems with this situation, I came prepared...nurse'em, give 'em a bottle or suck on something--Yes the dreaded lollipop.

I didn't see either parent do more than hold the baby, no sign of a bottle, sippy cup or even getting the kid to suck a finger or two. I won't ask the question did they ever consider other folks were trying to sleep....

Since I can't sleep through a baby's cries, and I couldn't jack up my MP3 player to tune out the noise, so I spent what could have been a day out and about catching up on sleep.... :grr:

With butter and cinnamon sugar.


:popcorn:

Wouldn't you want to have a good night's sleep (FWIW)on a red-eye flight. I guess I am not entitled to peace in the air...LOL...

It has nothing to do with how I feel -- I agree with you!

When they start screaming, lie. Say you're a pediatrician and then explain to them what you just told us. They'd probably thank you for it and never find out you lied.
Duckie

Until they ask me for my business card :)

But I'll take you up on that pacifier and lollipop trick. That will only work if the parents are receptive to the idea....

:shrug: nurses don't have cards. :evilgrin:

doctor, nurse, pediatric medical practitioner, med tech, anything.

I'd better do this only if my family is not on board with me...I can hear the kids say "you aren't a doctor"!

Sorry bout your trip.

I never thought I had to do buy them, I could once sleep through alarms and loud stuff, but the maternal side of answering a baby's cry overrules that...

Because they needed to put TWO (count them-----TWO) infant seats in the row ahead of me. And of course they screamed the whole flight. The cherry on the parfait was when a mom came up from the back of the plane with a screaming baby, and said "I didn't want to wake up the people around me - I figured you guys were already awake." Which, when you think about it, was the logical thing to do.

Yes, I would have thought parents had a clue when bringing babies on board. And I noticed the flight attendants are hands off on this one....

Not the end of the world - it's all about attitude, and I just decided, when I saw the infant seats, that I wasn't going to get any sleep, and once I had accepted that, I was okay with the whole screamy thing.

Plus is was winter and I was heading to my favorite hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, on the company dime, so that helped.

Well I had no other choice but to get used to it. Considering once I arrived at Point B, I was now sleep deprived and had to do things, among them, driving around town.

I only had to drive a little - from FLL to a hotel I go to all the time -- so I didn't have to be 100%. One of the main reasons I stick to routines when I travel (much easier to find a hotel at 2am when I've been there before). If possible, I even try to rent the same kind of car so that I don't have to think too hard about that either.

Otherwise I would have been crazed about the little screamers.

Do it right, and at the least you might get some upgrades.

Maybe they will give me a set of Bose noise-cancelling headphones :) Yeah, I can dream....

literally hit their babies for crying during the flight. It's not the kids' fault!!! (And I know that is your point.) But it really pissed me off.

:evilfrown:

Babies need attention at times like that, because they don't know how to clear their ears or what the hell is happening to them.

You are correct...parents should come prepared to tend to their babies on flights.

That is the ultimate in cluelessness.... :grr:

I was thinking maybe the kid had an ear infection, but then the kid shouldn't be flying or on some (heaven forbid!) medication to help with the congestion.

While telling them to stop crying. Uh, the kid was too damn young to understand. It was not easy to control myself and avoid slapping the parents silly. These obviously were not people who should have had kids, and yet it happened more than once.

:mad:

On the other hand, I have seen parents be marvelous to their babies or small children while on flights. Those children did not cry.

...when they are oldsters trying to sleep on a flight and some new clueless parents bring their screamies on board and make no effort to accomodate the infant.

Mine's a Shure, and I got it for my last trip involving airflight. Stuck those suckers in and suddenly ... the three wailing infants disappeared.